Methods for displaying physical network topology and environmental status by location, organization, or responsible party

ABSTRACT

The invention is directed to a system for remote monitoring of a space and equipment. The space and equipment may, for example, be a sever room and associated network equipment. The system has network appliances, a server, and a client machine. The server receives data from a network appliance. The server may then deliver an application and data to the client machine for viewing and manipulating the data. The client machine may display the data as a mapping, displaying icons associated with the network appliances. The client machine may also graph the data. Further, the client machine may manipulate the organization of the data, the configuration settings of the network appliances, and store map and graph configurations.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/107,962, filed Mar. 27, 2002 entitled: “NETWORK APPLIANCEMANAGEMENT”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 10/107,962, filed Mar. 27, 2002entitled: “NETWORK APPLIANCE MANAGEMENT” is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/057,563, now issued U.S. Pat. No.7,159,022, filed Jan. 25, 2002 entitled: “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR A SET OFNETWORK APPLIANCES WHICH CAN BE CONNECTED TO PROVIDE ENHANCEDCOLLABORATION, SCALABILITY, AND RELIABILITY”, which claims priority ofU.S. provisional Application No. 60/264,445, filed Jan. 26, 2001entitled: “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR A SET OF NETWORK APPLIANCES WHICH CANBE CONNECTED TO PROVIDE ENHANCED COLLABORATION, SCALABILITY, ANDRELIABILITY”, both of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/107,962, filed Mar. 27, 2002entitled: “NETWORK APPLIANCE MANAGEMENT” claims priority of U.S.provisional Application, No. 60/279,059, filed Mar. 27, 2001 entitled:“SENSOR PLAYBACK SYSTEM AND METHOD”, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/107,962, filed Mar. 27, 2002entitled: “NETWORK APPLIANCE MANAGEMENT” claims priority of U.S.provisional Application, No. 60/311,268, filed Aug. 9, 2001 entitled:“METHODS FOR DISPLAYING PHYSICAL NETWORK TOPOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTALSTATUS BY LOCATION, ORGANIZATION, OR RESPONSIBLE PERSON”, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/429,504, now issued U.S. Pat. No.6,714,977, filed Oct. 27, 1999 entitled: “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORMONITORING COMPUTER NETWORKS AND EQUIPMENT” is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to a system and method for monitoringnetwork equipment. More specifically, the invention relates to a systemand method of monitoring network-enabled sensor equipment from a remotelocation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Data traffic on networks, particularly on the Internet, has increaseddramatically over the past several years, and this trend will continuewith the rapid growth of e-commerce and other services on the Internetrequiring greater bandwidth. With this increase in data traffic onnetworks, there has been a corresponding increase in the number ofcomputer equipment rooms, known as “server rooms,” used to house theequipment necessary to support data traffic routing. Furthermore, theincreasing dependency of companies on their Internet presence hascreated an urgency to keep the server rooms up and running at all times.Industry estimates show that there are over 400,000 such rooms currentlyin existence in the United States.

The growth in Internet traffic has prompted many businesses to constructa server room to allow their employees to access Internet information orenable e-commerce and store data. As such, continuous server up time hasbecome important. Keeping track of numerous computers, along withassociated bridges, routers, backup power supplies, etc., can be aformidable task. A large company with server rooms in more than one citymight well be faced with spending thousands of dollars on softwarepackages to keep their equipment running. Dedicated technicians are alsoneeded to monitor network equipment and issue work orders to repairfailed units.

While reliable, modern computer systems cannot tolerate excess heat,dust or humidity. Heat can rapidly cause equipment deterioration.Failure of cooling fans can reduce equipment lifetime to days or hours.A single high-speed LAN (local area network) failure can cause slowsystem response. These and other such failures within the equipment in aserver room occur routinely and can cause great disruption to abusiness.

Typical solutions only permit inspection of devices on a local basis.Others permit a technician to inspect geographically diverseinstallations from a central console. However, all of these solutionsare expensive to implement, complex, and difficult to maintain and trainpersonnel to use them.

As a result, small to medium companies having small to medium networksare left in the position of requiring a means to monitor and maintaintheir computer network equipment from failing while not having theresources to afford the high-priced solutions. Many firms cannot afforda high-end solution or simply do not have the time and resources totrain their IT personnel to learn and use complex systems. Instead, thetypical monitoring method in many such companies is user complaints tothe IT manager to indicate when a problem has occurred.

This is especially true for companies having multiple server rooms andthat have concerns about routine access to each of these rooms.Additionally, concerns exist with current solutions regarding themanpower intensiveness of these solutions. Most network monitoringsolutions can consume a full or part-time employee. The financialjustification for these systems is, therefore, difficult because networkequipment typically fails yearly or on a disaster basis, and the cost ofrecovery is seen as less than that of maintaining a full-time employeeto routinely monitor the equipment.

Similar concerns exist for monitoring rack-mounted components. Typicalproblems include localized environmental excesses leading to failure.Another problem is theft. Typical monitoring solutions do not providefor video imaging of remote server locations over a network. Computerequipment is typically placed in server rooms for two reasons: securityand environmental control. Remote video imaging of a server room over anetwork can provide for maintaining security of the equipment despitethe lack of a physical presence on site.

A typical computer room can house hundreds of devices, ranging fromexpensive server grade computers to bridges, routers, uninterruptiblepower supplies and telephone equipment. A server room's environmentrequires monitoring because out-of-limit environmental variables caneventually affect the equipment in the room. For example, hightemperatures, humidity (for example, from water leaks), or lack ofairflow can detrimentally affect the equipment. Similarly, alarms, suchas smoke and fire alarms, or the status of room openings, are importantto determine. While the expense of replacing server room components ifthey fail is great, currently existing monitoring solutions are not costeffective for smaller-sized companies to implement despite the potentialcosts of such losses.

These typical monitoring systems use a centralized application. Whilethese mechanisms can be quite effective, they introduce additionalcosts, through additional software, hardware, configuration,administration, and network bandwidth.

Beyond the application to server rooms and rack mountings of networkequipment, various other monitoring systems suffer from the samefailures and deficiencies associated with information accessibility,organization, and presentation.

As such, many typical network monitoring systems suffer fromdeficiencies in information accessibility, organization, andpresentation. Many other problems and disadvantages of the prior artwill become apparent to one skilled in the art after comparing suchprior art with the present invention as described herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the invention may be found in a system for remote monitoringof network appliances. The system may have a server. The server may bein communication with a network appliance. Further, the server may be incommunication with the client machine. The server may function todownload sensory data from the network appliance or appliances and storethe information. Further, the server may function to uploadconfiguration data to the network appliance or appliances.

In addition, the server may communicate with the client machine. Theserver may transfer software to the client machine. The software maypermit the client machine to access sensory data on the server and tomanipulate configuration data.

The server, network appliance, and client may communicate through aninterconnected network. The interconnected network may be a globalnetwork, wireless network, wide area network, and local area network,among others.

Aspects of the invention may also be found in a server. The server maybe in communication with the network appliances. Further, the server maybe in communication with the client machine. A server may downloadinformation from the network appliances associated with sensor data.Further, the server may upload configuration data to the networkappliances. A server may also supply software to the client machine. Thesoftware may enable the client machine to access data on the server,manipulate the data, display the data and change configuration dataassociated with the network appliances.

The server may also have map configuration data. These data may betransferred to the client machine and used to display data associatedwith the network appliances. Further, the data may be displayed as iconsarranged on a display. These icons may be organized in a manner thatrepresents physical location, status, and function, among others.Furthermore, these icons may be superimposed on a graphic element. Thegraphic element may be a map, an image, or a plot, among others.

The server may also function to store image data associated with thenetwork appliances. The image data may be stored in a manner thatassociates the image data with other sensory data or sensory eventsoccurring on the network appliances. The image data may be a stillimage, an infrared image or a movie, among others.

Aspects of the invention may also be found in a client machine andsoftware operable to run on the client machine. The software may beacquired from the server. The software may enable the client machine toaccess information associated with the network appliances. Thisinformation may be sensory data and/or configuration data, among others.The software may also enable the client machine to display the data Forexample, the data may be displayed in the form of a map, a graph, or atable, among others. The software may also enable the client machine tomanipulate data, map configuration data, and configurations associatedwith network appliances, among others. For example, the client maycustomize a map by specifying the organization of icons associated withnetwork appliances and their data associated therewith. Alternately, theclient may manipulate the access of other users to the map. The clientmay also manipulate configurations associated with network appliances bychanging a parameter associated with several network appliances to asame value for each of the several network appliances. The client mayalso manipulate a graph, such that data associated with multiple sensorsfrom multiple network appliances may be displayed. The client may alsodisplay image data associated with sensors and/or physical eventsassociated with the network appliances.

Aspects of the invention may also be found in a map configuration data.The map configuration data may be automatically generated or configuredby a client, among others. Further, the map configuration data may haverestricted permissions such that the map may be viewable by one or fewother users. Further, the map may have a configuration such that usersare given varying permissions associated with viewing and changing themap. The map may also display icons super imposed over a background. Forexample, the background may depict a map of a physical location overwhich icons are displayed representing the physical location of anassociated network appliance.

Further aspects of the invention may be found in a method for massconfiguration of network appliances. The method may include changing aparameter associated with several network appliances to a same value foreach network appliance. A client machine may perform the change. Thechange may then be stored on a server. A network appliance may then pingthe server. The server may respond with new configuration data. Further,the network appliance may respond with a confirmation and the server mayrespond to the confirmation with additional data, if available.

Another aspect of the invention may be found in a graph. The graph maybe a graph of data associated with network appliances. The graph may bedisplayed on client machine. Further, the graph may be associated withvarious sensors associated with multiple appliances. The sensors may beof a same type, a varying types or a combination of types, among others.

Further aspects of the invention may be found in an image. The image maybe acquired from a image acquisition enabled network appliance. Thenetwork appliance may acquire the image in response to an event onanother network appliance, or the same network appliance, orcombinations of network appliances, among others. The image may betransferred to a server for storage. A server may store the image in amanner such that the image is associated with the event. Further, theimage may be stored such that it is associated with a time the image wastaken, the time of the event, or other factors. Further, the image maybe associated with various network appliances.

As such, a system for remote monitoring of network equipment isdescribed. Other aspects, advantages and novel features of the presentinvention will become apparent from the detailed description of theinvention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention andadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which likereference numbers indicate like features and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system, according to theinvention;

FIG. 2A is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of thesystem as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 2B is another schematic block diagram of another exemplaryembodiment of the system as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 2C is a schematic block diagram of a further exemplary embodimentof the system as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3A is a block flow diagram of an exemplary method for use by thesystem as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3B is a block flow diagram of an exemplary method for use by thesystem as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the client asseen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the server asseen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a networkappliance as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a mapas seen in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8A is schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the mapas seen in FIG. 7;

FIG. 8B is a schematic block diagram of another exemplary embodiment ofthe map as seen in FIG. 7;

FIG. 8C is a schematic block diagram of a further exemplary embodimentof the map as seen in FIG. 7;

FIG. 8D is a schematic block diagram of another exemplary embodiment ofthe map as seen in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9A is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a configurationof several network appliances as seen in FIG. 5;

FIG. 9B is a block diagram of another exemplary embodiment of aconfiguration as seen in FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is a block flow diagram of an exemplary method for use by thesystem as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a block flow diagram of an exemplary method for use by thesystem as seen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a exemplary embodiment of a groupingaccording to FIG. 5;

FIG. 13A is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a display foruse by the system of FIG. 4;

FIG. 13B is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a display foruse by the system as seen in FIG. 4;

FIG. 13C is a block diagram of a further exemplary embodiment of adisplay for use by the system as seen in FIG. 4;

FIG. 14 is a chart of an exemplary embodiment as displayed by the systemof FIG. 4; and

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of adisplay for use by the system of FIG. 4.

Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of the system according to theinvention. The system 10 has a server, a client 12 and a networkappliance 16. The server 14 is connected to one or more networkappliances 16 through an interconnected network. The server 14 mayfunction to transfer sensor data from the network appliance 16 andtransfer configuration data to the network appliances 16. The server 14is also connected to a client machine 12. The client machine 12 mayaccess, display and/or manipulate data stored on the server 14. In thismanner, the client 12 may remotely monitor network appliances 16 and theclient 12 may reconfigure the network appliances 16.

The client 12 may be connected to the server 14 through aninterconnected network. Further, the server 14 may be connected to thenetwork appliance 16 through an interconnected network. Theinterconnected network may take various forms. These forms may include aglobal network, wide area network, local area network, wireless network,phone systems, and satellite communications systems, among others.Further, these networks and systems may use various method, protocols,and standards, including, among others, ethernet, wireless ethernet,TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, SNMP, Blue Tooth, and others. In addition, varioussecurity methods may be used in transferring data, including SSL, amongothers. Further, a user-controlled level of security may be provided. Astandard protocol may allow the client and server to be physicallylocated on separate sides of a firewall, adding another level ofsecurity to the customer.

In addition, the client 12 may acquire instructions for accessing,displaying and manipulating data from the server 14. These instructionsmay also be transferred by the server from the server 14 on an as neededbasis.

In one exemplary embodiment, the server 14 may communicate with one ormore network appliances 16. The one or more network appliances 16 may belocated in a server room. The one or more network appliances 16 may havesensors for sensing environmental conditions and security states of theserver room.

For example, the network appliances 16 may collect data associated withtemperature, humidity, door sensors, alarms, power quality, motiondetectors and cameras, among others. The network appliances 16 may, forexample, communicate with the server 14 through hypertext transferprotocols. In one exemplary embodiment, the network appliances 16 areconnected to an interconnected network, such as a local area network,wide area network global network, and wireless network, among others.The network may, for example, use a TCP/IP protocol communicationsmethod. The network appliances 16 may, for example, communicate with theserver 14 using a hypertext transfer protocol.

For example, the network appliances 16 may ping a server 14 with an HTTPmethod communication. The server 14 may respond to that HTTP ping methodcommunication with data associated with the configuration of the networkappliance 16. Alternately, the network appliances 16 may use the HTTPmethod communication to transfer data to the server 14. In oneembodiment, the network appliance 16 may use an HTTP Post method to sendinformation relating to alarms and alerts. Some alarms and/or alerts mayhave associated image data which may be stored on the server 14.Furthermore, the server may associate the image data with the alert.Alerts delivered via HTTP Posts may allow other appliances tocommunicate and deliver information to servers that cannot initiatecommunications with the Appliances, for example, due to firewalls orintermittent network connectivity. This approach may provide superiorreliability, security, and connectivity to conventional SNMP alertdelivery.

The HTTP Post method may also be used to implement periodic posting ofdata from the network appliance to the server. The end-user may alsoconfigure appliances to periodically deliver their sensor data to thepresent invention, “pushing” the data to the server instead of havingthe server “pull” the data from the appliance. This mechanism allows theserver to collect and record data from appliances that it is not capableof initiating communications with, such as appliances located behind afully blocking firewall to inbound network requests. The delivery ofthis data may be set to require a user-id and password, allowing thepresent invention to authenticate the delivered data. The sametransactions used for communicating the current sensor values and statesmay be used to verify status. If the delivery of the data issignificantly overdue (i.e. by some period of time, or some number ofscheduled Posts are missing), the Server will declare the Appliance“offline” or “missing in action”.

In another embodiment, the server 14 may communicate with the networkappliance 16 using an HTTP Get call. However, the server 14 and networkappliances 16 may use various communications methods. These methods mayinclude file transfer protocol, hypertext transfer protocol, SNMP, amongothers. Further, the communications may include messages associated withHTML, XML, HTTP post, HTTP get, compressed data, and image data, amongothers. The communication may occur on intervals. These intervals may befixed periodically, vary with date or time, be adjustable, or anycombination, among others. In addition, timeouts and retries may beconfigured.

Further, the server may attempt to find network appliances throughdiscovery. For example, the server may attempt to communicate with eachpossible address in a given IP address range. In addition, it mayattempt to communicate with each of a specified set of ports that theuser has configured the HTTP servers on their appliances to use.

The ability to schedule a discovery or collect environmental sensor dataduring a control window makes life easier for network administrators toreduce network management traffic during peak hours. This approach mayallow the user to configure which days of the week to scan for theirappliances, as well as what time of day to do the scan. This feature mayalso allows the user to find appliances located at network sites thatare only “dialed up” during certain scheduled times of days, withoutwasting time and effort attempting to discover them when they are notconnected to the central site.

The present invention supports an arbitrary number of discoverypolicies, allowing discovery to be fine-tuned for multiple sites anddifferent customer policies.

The system may also support “discovering” appliances by handlingAppliance-initiated HTTP Posts. When an Appliance issues a Post to theServer, the server will determine if the Appliance is one alreadymanaged by the Server. If not, the Appliance will be automaticallyadded, either unconditionally or if it meets certain criteria configuredby the user (i.e. only devices on certain subnets, certain models, ormatching membership criteria for certain Groups (see 3.9)). The Server'sresponse to the Post may be used to tell the Appliance how often tocheck-in in the future (if it is accepted) or to not Post again in thefuture (if it is rejected), among others.

The server 14 may communicate with a client machine 12. For example, theclient machine 12 and server 14 may be coupled to an interconnectednetwork. The interconnected network may take various forms. These formsmay include global networks, local area networks, wide area networks,wireless networks, phone switching networks, and others. Further, thesenetworks may use various protocols, such as TCP/IP.

In one exemplary embodiment, the client machine 12 may communicate withthe server 14 using hypertext transfer protocols. For example, theclient machine 12 may have a web browser that communicates with theserver 14. The web browser may be a JAVA enabled browser. For example, aJAVA enabled browser may download an applet from the server 14. Theapplets may enable the client machine to access, display, and/ormanipulate data stored on the server 14. For example, the client machine12 may be able to access information associated with sensor data,configuration data, image data, network appliance status, and mapconfiguration data, among others. In one exemplary embodiment, theclient machine 12 may query the server using SQL to retrieve the desireddata However, various other methods may be used to retrieve data.

The client machine 12 may then display the data in various formatsincluding tables, maps, and graphs, among others. Furthermore, theclient 12 may, in one exemplary embodiment, dynamically load JAVAprogramming object classes for viewing, accessing, and/or manipulatingvarious data. Most of the HTTP replies returned from the server are inplain ASCII text. However there are several situations where binarytransfers of Java Objects are far more efficient. For these scenarios, aNetwork Class Loader may be implemented so the server can create complexreturn-objects for the client. Since the client may be relatively small,a mechanism may provide the underlying Object code to the client beforeit receives the Object itself. The Network Class Loader is thatsolution. In other words, the client can make a request to the serverand receive both an Object containing data, and the code necessary todecode and execute the returned Object within the client's applicationenvironment.

This feature may further enhance the ability of third-party developers(both end-user and ISVs) to extend the present invention, since thedefinitions of these interfaces and the classes returned can bepublished without requiring the ISV to include potentially obsoleteversions of the class implementations in their delivered code (since theup-to-date versions will be served to the application from the presentinvention using the Network Class Loader). For compression purposes,returned objects from the server may utilize the Object serializationstandard put forth by Sun Microsystems in the Java Runtime Environment.

The client machine 12 may also manipulate and organize data. In oneexemplary embodiment, the client machine 12 may establish dynamicgroups, organized by chain of command, business infrastructure, orphysical location, among others. These groups may be displayed in a treestructure. Further, these groupings may, for example, be implementedusing dynamically created queries.

However, the client machine may have various embodiments. Furthermore,the client machine may communicate with the server 14 through variousprotocols. These protocols may include FTP, HTTP, SNMP, among others. Inan alternate embodiment, the client machine 12 may contain software. Thesoftware may be functional to acquire and load various programmingobjects and classes. The software may also be written in variouslanguages such as JAVA, C++, Visual Basic, among others.

The server 14 may also communicate to the client machine 12 an alertassociated with storage capacity. Further, the server 14 may implementautomated backup.

FIG. 2A is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of thesystem as seen in FIG. 1. The system 30 may have a server 34 connectedto an interconnected network 32. In addition, the system 30 may haveclient machines 36, 38, network appliances 40, 42, or third partyappliances 44 connected to a network 32, among others. The server 34 mayfunction to store information associated with the network appliances.This information may include sensor data, configuration data, image dataand map configuration files, among others. The data or information maybe down loaded by the server 34 from the network appliances 40, 42.Alternately, the network appliances 40, 42 may transfer data orinformation to the server 34 through the interconnected network 32.

Furthermore, the server may acquire data from a third party appliance 44through the interconnected network 32. A server 34 may store, group andorganize the information and data. Further, the server may supply theinformation to one or more client machines 36, 38, through theinterconnected network 32.

One or more client machines 36, 38, may communicate with the server 34through an interconnected network 32. The clients 36, 38 may accessdata, display, and manipulate data, among others. Furthermore, theclients 36, 38 may acquire instructions and/or programs associated withaccessing the data from the server 34.

However, the server 34, the network appliances 40, 42, the third partyappliance 44 and the clients 36, 38 may or may not be connected to thesame interconnected network. Moreover, these elements may be configuredseparately, together, or in various combinations, among others.

For example, FIG. 2B is a schematic block diagram of an exemplaryembodiment of the system as seen in FIG. 1. The system has a serverconnected to two interconnected networks 52, 54. The interconnectednetwork 52 also connects to client machines 58, 60, and 62. Theinterconnected network 54 may connect to one or more network appliances64, 66, 68, and/or third party appliances 69. A server 56 may transferinformation to and from the one or more appliances 64, 66, 68 and/or thethird party appliances 69 through the interconnected network 54. Thisinformation may be sensor data, configuration data, and images, amongothers.

The server 56 may store the information and supply that information toclient machines 58, 60, 62. The client machines 58, 60, 62 may, forexample, access, display and/or manipulate the data associated with thenetwork appliances 64, 66, 68 and third party appliances 69. Further,the client machines 58, 60, 62 may acquire from the server 56,instructions, objects, classes, and programs, among others, foraccessing, displaying and manipulating the data associated with thenetwork appliances 64, 66, 68 and third party appliances 69, as storedon the server 56.

Further, FIG. 2C is a schematic block diagram of a further exemplaryembodiment of the system as seen in FIG. 1. The system 70 has a server76. The server 76 may be connected to a network appliance A 84 oroptionally connected to a network appliance B 88. Network appliance A 84and network appliance B 88 may be connected to an interconnected network74. In addition, network appliance 86 and a third party appliance 89 maybe connected to the interconnected network 74. The server 76 may beconnected to the network appliance A84 through various means. Thesemeans may include a global network, wide area network, local areanetwork, wireless network, phone systems, and satellite communicationssystems, among others. Further, these networks and systems may usevarious method, protocols, and standards, including, among others,ethernet, wireless ethernet, TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, SNMP, Blue Tooth, andothers.

In addition, the server 76 may be connected to network appliance B 88through various means. These means may include a global network, widearea network, local area network, wireless network, phone systems, andsatellite communications systems, among others. Further, these networksand systems may use various method, protocols, and standards, including,among others, ethernet, wireless ethernet, TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, SNMP, BlueTooth, and others.

Moreover, the server 76 may be connected to network appliance A 84 andnetwork appliance B 88 through the same, different, or variouscombinations, among others, of interconnected communication methods.

In addition, the server 76 may be connected to one or more clientmachines 78, 80 82 through an interconnected network 72. The clientmachines 78, 80, 82, may, through the interconnected network 72, access,display, and manipulate data associated with the network appliances 84,86, 88 and/or third party appliances 89 as stored on the server 76.Furthermore, the client machines 78, 80, 82 may acquire from the server76, instructions, objects, and classes, among others, for accessing,displaying and manipulating data as stored on the server 76.

The server 76 may store data associated with the network appliances 84,86, 88 and third party appliances 89. This information may includesensor data, configuration data, map configuration data, groupings andassociations, accessibility information, and image data, among others.The server, may, for example, communicate with network appliance A 84 totransfer the data. Alternately, the server 76 may communicate withnetwork appliance B 88 to transfer the data. In one exemplaryembodiment, network appliance A 84 may act as an intermediate betweennetwork appliances 86, 88, third party appliances 89 and the server 76.Network appliance A 84 may function as an intermediary by storing adirectory of data, acting as a proxy, or acting as a data reciprocal,among others.

However, the elements as seen in FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C may configured invarious combinations, together or separate, among others. As such,various configurations may be envisaged.

The client machine may connect to a server to acquire data. The data maychange or fluctuate dynamically on the varying conditions at a networkappliance. Various methods may be used to update the data as displayedon the client machine. For example, the client machine may stayconnected to the server continuously. However, continuous connection tothe server may represent a burden to the network. Alternately, theclient machine may periodically download updates from the server.However, the data integrity as displayed on the client machine maysuffer, as changes to the data on the server may not be seen on theclient machine.

In another embodiment, combinations of these methods may be used. Forexample, FIG. 3A shows a method for communicating between the client andserver. In this exemplary method 90, the client may connect to theserver as seen in a block 92. The client may wait and acquire dataupdates as they occur as seen in a block 94. The client may thendisconnect as seen in a block 96. During this time, the data displayedmay not be updated by the server. The client may then wait for a periodof time as seen by a block 98 and reconnect. In this manner, whileconnected, the data integrity will be maintained. However, periodicdisconnection will improve network communications or decrease networkload. The periods of connecting and disconnecting may be constant,manipulated, or fluctuate with activity or demand. For example, duringperiods of low activity, the disconnect period may be increased.Alternately, during periods of high activity, the connect period may beincreased. Furthermore, these periods may be changed in response to userinteraction, user activity, and network appliance activity, serveractivity, among others.

The client may connect using various methods and protocols, amongothers. Alternately, the client may use a ping method or various GET orPOST methods to contact the server at varying intervals. These intervalsmay be increased or reduced to simulate a connection or wait period.

In response, the server may alter its approach to collecting andtransferring data. For example, FIG. 3B shows a block flow diagram of anexemplary method for use by the server. The method 100 involves cueingdata as seen in a block 102 when the client machine is disconnected.Then, data is automatically delivered, as seen in a block 104, when theclient machine is connected. However, various other embodiments may beenvisaged for communicating between the client and the server.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary embodiment of a client machine as seen inFIG. 1. The client machine 110 may have a processor 112, programmablecircuitry 114, one or more network interfaces 116, one or more userinterfaces 118, and storage mediums 120, among others. A storage mediums120 may store application data. Further the storage mediums may storedownloaded data and information 128. However, the client 110 may havevarious configurations. These elements may or may not be included.Further, these elements may be separate, together, or in variouscombinations, among others.

The processor 112 may function to interpret the instructions andapplication data. The processor may take various forms. These forms mayinclude CPUs, embedded processors, JAVA enabled processors, and variouscomputational circuitry, among others. Further, the processor mayoperate with an operating system such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows2000, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows CE, Linux, Unix, BSD, MacOS 9.x,MacOS X, Sun OS, PALM, or a Java-based operating system, among others.

The programmable circuitry 114 may take various forms. These forms mayenable a user to program the client machine 110 using various interfacessuch as a keyboard, mouse, network, drive, and handheld circuitry, amongothers.

The network interfaces may take various forms. These forms may includevarious circuitry for communicating through ethernet, wireless ethernet,Blue Tooth, phone lines, and modems, among others.

User interfaces may take various forms. These forms may includemonitors, keyboards, wireless devices, handheld devices, and a mouse,among others.

The storage mediums 120 may take various forms. These forms may includehard drives, floppy drives, removable drives, cards, CD-ROM, CD-RW,CD-R, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, RAM, and flash memory, among others.

The storage mediums 120 may store various applications 122, applets 126and or data 128. The client 110 may function, for example, to access,display and manipulate data stored on a server and associated withnetwork appliances. The client may use installed applications to access,display and manipulate the data. Alternately, the client may downloadapplications, applets, and object classes, among others, to access,display, and/or manipulate the data. Furthermore, the client may usevarious combinations of installed and downloaded application, applets,object classes, among others.

The applications, applets, object classes may take various forms. Theseforms may include internet browsers, stand alone applications,interpreters, libraries, and instruction sets, among others.

In one exemplary embodiment, the client may connect to a server througha network interface 116. The client may have a JAVA enabled web browser.The web browser may function to acquire an applet from the serverthrough the network interface 116. The applet may function to enableaccess to the data, display the data in various forms, and enablemanipulation of the data. The client may manipulate data on the serverto alter map configurations, network appliance associations,accessibility and permission information, annotate data associated withevents, and network application configuration data, among others.

Further, the applet or applets may also function to permit changingand/or manipulation of configuration data associated with networkappliances. For example, one or more parameters associated with one ormore network appliances may be changed. A parameter associated withseveral network appliances may be changed to a same value for eachnetwork appliance. Alternately, a single value may be changed associatedwith a single parameter of a single network appliance. Furthermore,configuration settings may be uploaded to the server for futureimplementation on the network appliances.

The applet or applets may enable the client machine to display data. Forexample, the applet or applications may display a map. The map may haveicons associated with the network appliances. Further, these icons maybe used to display representations of the data. These icons may also besuperimposed on a graphic, image, map or plot, among others. Further,the icons may be arranged according to type, location, alarm state,configuration, parameter value, or organization, among others.Alternately, the applications or applets may display the data as atable. For example, the table may display a current value of a parameterassociated with a sensor on or connected to a network appliance.Alternately, the table may display alarm states associated with networkappliances. Further, the table may display configuration parameters anddata associated with network appliances. The table may further enablemanipulation and changing of the values within the table. Alternately,the data may be displayed in graphical forms. These graphs mayadditionally offer the ability to chart data associated with one or moresensors associated with one or more network appliances. However, variousother display methods may be envisaged. The applications or applets mayalso function to dynamically download data objects, classes, programelements, useful for accessing, displaying and/or manipulating new dataelements. For example, a network class loader may be implemented in anapplication or applet such that new data classes may be implemented.These may, for example, be written in JAVA.

The applications and/or applets may also function to display image data.The image data may, for example, be associated with events, networkappliances, and sensor data, among others. The applet or applets maydisplay the image data in association with the events, networkappliances, and/or sensor data.

In one exemplary embodiment, the client machine 110 may be a personalcomputer running an operating system such as, for example, Windows 2000.The client machine 110 may have an browser such as Internet Explorer 6.0and be Java enabled.

In another exemplary embodiment, the client machine may be a handhelddevice with an operating system such as PALM or WINDOWS CE and be Javaenabled. However, various devices may be envisaged. In addition, variousoperating systems and computer languages may be used.

In this manner, a client machine 110 may have fully functional access toinformation stored on the server and associated with network appliances.Further, the client may function to view, create, and manipulategroupings of network appliances. The client machine 110 may function toestablish permissions to groupings.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a server as seenin FIG. 1. A server 130 may have a processor 132, programmable circuitry134, network interfaces 136, and storage mediums 138 and user interfaces148. A storage medium 138 may hold databases 140, applications 142,instructions 144 and map configuration data 146. However, these elementmay or may not be included. Further, these elements may be separate,together, or in various combinations, among others.

A processor 132 may take various forms. These forms may include CPUs,embedded processors, JAVA enabled processors, and various computationalcircuitry, among others. Further the processor 132 may operate using anoperating system such as Window 2000, Windows NT, Linux, BSD, UNIX, MacOS X, Mac OS 9.x, or a Java-based operating system, among others.

A programmable circuitry 134 may take various forms. These forms mayenable a user to program the server 130 using various interfaces such asa keyboard, mouse, network, drive, and handheld circuitry, among others.

A network interfaces 136 may take various forms. These forms may includevarious circuitry for communicating through ethernet, wireless ethernet,Blue Tooth, phone lines, and modems, among others.

Storage mediums 138 may take various forms. These forms may include harddrives, floppy drives, removable drives, cards, CD-ROM, CD-RW, CD-R,DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, RAM, and flash memory, among others.

The storage mediums 138 may hold databases 140, applications 142,instructions 144 and map configuration data 146. The databases 140 maytake various forms. These forms may include Oracle databases, SQLcompatible databases, Jet databases, generic databases, tables, andspreadsheets, among others. The map configuration data 146 may also bestored in a database 140. The instructions 144 may take various forms.These forms may include compiled code, interpreted code, Java code,Visual Basic code, C++ code, HTML code, PHP code, and Perl, amongothers.

The user interfaces 148 may take various forms. These forms may includemonitors, keyboards, wireless devices, handheld devices, and a mouse,among others.

The server may function to download data from network appliances throughthe network interfaces 136. The data may, for example, be stored in thedatabases 140. This data may be sensory data, configuration data, imagedata, among others. Further, the server may include applications andinstructions for communicating with the network appliances.

A server 130 may also function to communicate with one or more clientmachines through the network interface or interfaces 136. The server 130may transfer applications 142 to the client machine. These applicationsand instructions may enable the client machine 110 to retrieve, display,and/or manipulate data. These applications may also be delivered inparts, classes, or software objects on an as needed basis.

In one exemplary embodiment, a client machine may request an applicationfrom the server. The server may deliver at least part of the applicationto the client machine. For example, a browser on the client machine mayrequest a Java applet. The Java applet may enable the client machine toaccess, display and manipulate data. For example, the applet may enablethe client to organize and group network appliance data, develop usergroups, change user access information, display maps, manipulate iconsand map features, change network appliance configurations, displayalarms, and annotate data, among others. Further, the client machine maystore information on the server.

For example, the server may deliver an application enabling the clientto access the database and display image data associated with a cameraenabled network appliance. Alternately, the server may deliver a part ofan application enabling the client to display a table of networkappliances and their associated parameters such as a value of a sensoror an alarm state, among others. Further, the server may deliver a partof an application which displays a tree of network appliances associatedinto groups.

The server may also deliver an application and associated mapconfiguration data. The application may enable the client to access anddisplay a map. The map may have icons superimposed on a backgroundimage. The icons may represent network appliances or groupings ofnetwork appliances. Further, the icons may link to present or historicalvalues of the network appliances associated with the icons. In addition,an action such as clicking an icon may initiate another display such asanother map, table, or graph. The icons may have an appearanceindicative of type, capabilities, status, alarm state, present orhistorical value of a parameter or sensor output, or responsible party,among others. The icons may be arranged in a manner indicative ofphysical location, type, capabilities, status, alarm state, present orhistorical value of a parameter or sensor output, or responsible party,among others. Moreover, the background image may be a picture, videoimage, graph, contour plot, and vector plot, among others. Theapplication may also enable the client machine to manipulate user accessdata stored on the server. The application may also enable the clientmachine to store map configuration data on the server 130.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a network appliance, for use in the systemas seen in FIG. 1. The network appliance 150 may have a processor 152, aprogrammable circuitry 154, one or more network interfaces 156, one ormore storage mediums 158, and one or more sensors 162, among others. Thestorage medium 158 may hold data 160, among others. However, theseelements may or may not be included. Further, these elements may beseparate, together, or in various configurations, among others.

The processor 152 may take various forms. These forms may include CPUs,embedded processors, JAVA enabled processors, and various computationalcircuitry, among others.

The programmable circuitry 154 may take various forms. These forms mayenable a user to program the network appliance 150 using variousinterfaces such as a keyboard, mouse, network, drive, and handheldcircuitry, among others.

The network interfaces may take various forms. These forms may includevarious circuitry for communicating through ethernet, wireless ethernet,Blue Tooth, phone lines, and modems, among others. Further, the networkinterface may enable the network appliance to connect to variousnetworks including global networks, LANs, WANs, phone networks, pagenetworks, satellite communication systems, and wireless networks, amongothers. The network interface may enable communication between thenetwork appliance 150 and a server and/or other network appliances.Further, the network interface may enable the use of various methods,protocols, and standards, included HTTP, FTP, SNMP, TCP/IP, LDAP, andothers.

The storage mediums 158 may take various forms. These forms may includehard drives, floppy drives, removable drives, cards, CD-ROM, CD-RW,CD-R, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, RAM, and flash memory, among others. Further,the storage medium may store data associated with network applianceconfiguration, sensors, user access, other network appliances, andalgorithms, among others.

The sensors 162 may take various forms. These forms may includetemperature sensors, pressure sensors, airflow sensors, alarm sensors,dry contact sensors, humidity sensors, cameras, video cameras, infraredcameras, power quality sensors, data traffic sensors, acoustic sensors,and motion sensors, among others.

The network appliance 150 may function to communicate with the server.The communication may, for example, take the form of a ping, an HTTPGET, an HTTP POST, a SNMP message, an email message, or an FTP command,among others. With the communication, the network appliance may uploaddata, download configuration and/or accessibility settings, downloadprogram information, and indicate status. The communication may also usevarious security protocols and methods. Alternatively, the networkappliance 150 may communicate with another network appliance acting asan intermediary between the server and the network appliance 150. Assuch, the information above may be exchanged between the networkappliance 150 and the other network appliance acting as theintermediary. In both cases, the network appliance may deliver data on aschedule, as it is available, in response to a request, in response toan alarm, or in other manners. Further, the data may be formatted invarious protocols including HTTP or FTP, among others.

The network appliance 150 may also communicate with other networkappliances in a cluster. The cluster of network appliances may usevarious means for communication including HTTP, SNMP, and FTP, amongothers. The cluster may also establish relationships, a directory, andshare resources, among others.

In one exemplary embodiment, the network appliance may collect imagedata in response to an open door alarm or motion alarm. The networkappliance 150 may then upload the data to a server. The server may thenprovide the image and the alarm data to a client machine.

In another exemplary embodiment, a client machine may requesttemperature data from the server, the server may collect the data fromthe network appliance 150. The server may then forward the data to theclient machine.

In a further example, the client machine may alter configuration data.The data may be stored on the server. The network appliance 150 mayretrieve the configuration data from the server and adapt.

Turning to methods of displaying and manipulating data, a mapconfiguration may be established and stored on the server. The mapconfiguration may be accessible by various user. In one exemplaryembodiment, FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a user associationfor the map configuration. A first user 172 may create a mapping oficons. The icons may be associated with network appliances. Thesenetwork appliances may be active or passive devices. Further, the iconsmay be arranged and/or superimposed on a background image. The firstuser may establish a permission data. The permission data may forexample give a second user 176 access to the map data 174. The seconduser may be given permission to view or edit the map configuration data,or both. Alternately, the first user may give viewing permission orexclude another user 178.

Additionally, the map view may be “locked” or “unlocked”. When “locked”,the icons and objects on the view are not movable, preventing accidentalor intentional manipulation of the layout. The privilege of “unlocking”of the map view can be restricted, allowing a map to be created andmaintained by one user account, and safely shared with other, lessprivileged, users.

The icons may take various forms. These visual forms may be indicativeof type, alarm status, parameter value, capabilities, and version, amongothers. For example, an icon may have a shape representative of itcapabilities, a color representative of a sensor value, a right handflag with a label, a top flag with a numerical value. In addition, theflags may change color in response to alarm conditions. However, variouschanges and uses of visual characteristics can be envisaged to representvarious data associated with network appliances. Each icon may havesome, all, or none of these features.

The icons may also link to other images, displays, and data. Forexample, the user, through an action such as, for example, clicking onthe icon may display another mapping, a data table, and an iconconfiguration, among others. Furthermore, the user may manipulate theicon configuration and store the configuration on the server.

Further, the icons may be arranged in a display in accordance with somecharacteristic. For example they may be arrange according to a sensorvalue, an alarm state, a physical location, or randomly, among others.FIG. 8A is schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a map.The icons may be arranged in a display area. For example, iconsassociated with a user may be viewed. FIG. 8B is a schematic blockdiagram of an exemplary embodiment of a map. As shown, the icons may bearranged according to an alarm state as indicated by a shaded flag.Alternately, the icons may be arranged according to physical location asshown in FIG. 8C. For example, the location may be a location within aroom, geography, or server rack. Further, the icons may be superimposedon a map or image indicative of the location. The map or image maychange in response to events associated with the network appliances. Forexample an image representing a room may be replaced with a similarimage indicating an open door. However, the image may be a picture,video image, plot, graph, blueprint, or map, among others. In anotherexample, the icons may be arranged according to network appliance type,as depicted in FIG. 8D. The shape of the icon may for example representthe type or version. However, various pairings between visualcharacteristics and data may be envisaged. These map configurations andassociated accessibility information may be stored on the server andaccessed by the client.

The icons and object displayed on the map view may include both activenetwork devices and passive devices. The ability to add and manipulatethe passive devices along with the active network devices may allow theuser to accurately represent the physical environment of his equipmentrooms, for example. Other exemplary implementations may allow theend-user to import graphical images in a variety of formats (GIF, BMP,JPG, etc) to use as icons customized for their specific equipment (bothactive and passive).

In one embodiment, a mapping may be associated with a grouping ofnetwork appliances. This grouping may, for example, be related tophysical location or topology. In one example, environmental sensorreadings may be displayed on the map views as part of the icon. The mapview may display a single sensor attribute at a time on each of theactive devices supporting the given sensor. For example, whentemperature is selected, each device that supports a temperature sensorhas the most current reading of that sensor presented. In conjunctionwith the physical representation afforded by the map view, this mayenable a presentation of the two-dimensional “field” associated with thegiven sensor. The map view may also allow very rapid selection ofdifferent sensors readings via a context menu, allowing a user toquickly cycle between the values of different sensors without needing toopen additional windows. For sensor types that have potentiallydifferent units of measurement (degrees C. versus degrees F., ft/minversus meters/min), the view appropriately converts all sensor values tothe unit of measurement most appropriate to the locale and preferencesof the user, even when the data actually supplied by the differentdevices is natively in different units (degrees C. from one device,degrees F. from another).

The map may also use map colorization. Map colorization refers to theability to use color to represent sensor readings for an environment.This can be as simple as putting the sensor reading of the device on theicon or changing the color of the icon to represent a sensor thresholdrange. Also, the background of the map surrounding the icons may looklike a contour plot to display sensor readings from around the room.

Another implementation of present invention may include support for avariety of enclosures, such as equipment racks and cabinets, that willallow presentation of multiple devices stacked vertically at the samelocation. Map Colorization of these enclosures will allow sensor readingto be presented with respect to vertical positioning, as well ashorizontal. In addition, the vertical positions will enable thepresentation on the standard Map View of sensors values for a given“slice” of the room (i.e. all temperature sensors at the top of theracks, the middle of the racks, or under the raised floor).

Additional use of the feature could allow the presentation of variousattributes generated from multiple related sensors in the sameenclosure. For example, each rack could be displayed with thetemperature delta between the temperature reading of the cool airflowing into the rack versus the exhaust temperature.

The map view may also auto-sort by alarm severity. For example,environmental sensor alarms may be sorted to be displayed at the top ofthe map, followed by network connectivity alarms, and lastly by devicesthat are not in alarm state.

The display string for each icon may be user configurable to verticallydisplay a customizable user-friendly “name” for each device. The devicesthat are red may have environmental sensor alarms, the devices that areyellow may have network connectivity alarms, and the gray devices may bein a normal state. The colors may be user customizable. In the colorizedmode, the display string may show the alarm status.

This ordering and representation allows the user to quickly determinewhich devices need attention, even in a group containing hundreds orthousands of devices, since the user can quickly look at the firstdevices listed and know which devices need attention. Also, the user canquickly conclude by the fact that the first device listed has no errorsthat none of the other devices currently do.

Network appliance configuration data may also be stored on the server.This configuration data may include parameters, contact data, alarmsettings, email lists, alert lists, algorithms, password and accessdata, and threshold data, among others. The client may retrieve andmanipulate the data. For example, the client machine may displayconfiguration data for multiple network appliances. This configurationdata may, for example, be displayed as a table. The client machine maychange some, all, or none of the data. Further, the client machine maychange the value of a similar parameter associated with several networkappliances to the same value.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are block diagrams depicting exemplary embodiments oftables for use in manipulating configuration data. Configuration datamay take various forms. These forms may include parameters, settings,notification lists, address, responsibility lists, algorithms, software,and communications protocols, among others. The configurations may bechanged by selecting a single cell and making a change as seen in thedata column for network appliance #5. Alternately, all cells may beselected at once and changed to the same value as seen for parameter #1.However, fewer cells may be selected and changed as seen for parameter#2.

The system may provide a mass configuration mechanism for managing thesettings for our HTTP configurable appliances. The server may bemodified via its software plug-in architecture to handle massconfiguration of any HTTP configurable appliance.

The use of HTTP Posts for configuration management of the appliances mayallow configuration to be done more quickly, efficiently, and withbetter transactional integrity than SNMP-based configuration. Each HTTPPost may be used to configure multiple parameters in parallel,preventing the possibility of the appliance's configuration beingpartially updated (resulting in an unusable configuration) as well asreducing the number of network transactions required to complete aconfiguration update. As with all HTTP communications, the use of TCP/IP(as opposed to the UPD/IP used by SNMP) tends to minimize problems withWANs and firewalls.

The system may provide a mechanism for viewing the current software andhardware levels of our appliances and for updating them. A status columnmay display any errors that occur during the version query process anddisplays textual progress messages during the upgrade process. At anytime, a user may click on a cell in this column and view a popup thatdisplays the entire status message since they are frequently longer thancan be conveniently displayed in a single column of a spreadsheet.

Another exemplary implementation of the system may include support formanaging the configuration of an appliance that is only capable ofcommunicating with the Server, but which cannot be communicated with bythe Server. The system may store and maintain a copy of the settingsdesired by the user for a given appliance. These settings may bedetermined in the same fashion as they are currently set with the MassConfiguration interfaces. Since the Server cannot initiatecommunications with the firewalled appliances, it will simply record thedesired settings to be communicated later.

On the appliances, support may be added for configuring the appliance toissue periodic HTTP Posts to the present invention, querying forconfiguration updates. Whenever a configuration update request Post isissues to the server, the server may have the option of including (asthe content of the reply to the Post) a single command block structuredthe same as the input for an HTTP GET or POST would be if issueddirectly to the Appliance. When the reply to the configuration updaterequest includes this content, the Appliance may process it as if thegiven HTTP GET or POST had been issued to the Appliance as normal. Whencompleted, the output of this request may be delivered to the server asthe input to a second HTTP Post to the present invention. The server maythen process the input of the Post (which is the reply to the request heissued with the previous Post), and may either reply with the input forthe next HTTP GET or POST (repeating the process), or with no input (ifno further requests are pending).

FIG. 10 is a block flow diagram of an exemplary method for manipulatingconfiguration data, among other data. In the method 190, the clientmachine may retrieve the data from the server, as seen in a block 192. Auser may manipulate the data as seen in a block 194. Next, the servermay store the data. Then, the data may be transferred to the networkappliance or an intermediary network appliance as seen in a block 198.

For example, a client machine may request using an HTTP command dataand/or applications associated with manipulating configuration data. Auser may manipulate the data in a Java enabled browser. The clientmachine may then, using an HTTP command send the manipulated data to theserver for storage. A network appliance may ping the server. The servermay respond to the ping with the manipulated data. However, variousmeans and protocols may be envisaged for performing the method 190.

FIG. 11 is a block flow diagram of an exemplary method for use by thesystem. As above, the server may store configuration data as seen in ablock 212. The network appliance or an intermediary may ping the server.This ping may take various forms and use various protocols. For example,the ping may take the form of an HTTP POST, HTTP GET, or FTP command,among others. The sever may respond to the ping as seen in a block 216.The server may transfer data using a security protocol such as SSL. Ifconfiguration data or an upgrade is available, the server may includethe data with the response. The network appliance may then respond toindicate the transfer was successful. Subsequently, the server mayrespond with more data or an indication that no more data is available.

An example of this interchange might go as follows:

An appliance issues its periodic HTTP Post for requesting configurationupdates:

POST/centra/configquery HTTP/1.1

Host: 192.168.1.218:81

User-Agent: NetBotz/1.1.3

Accept: */*

Accept-Encoding: gzip

Accept-Language: en

The server determines that there is a pending configuration update, andissues a POST to set the new setting (in this case, enabling thetemperature threshold for a low of 60 degrees and a high of 80 degrees):

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Mon, 6 Aug. 2001 17:15:22 GMT

Server: Apache/1.3.17 (Unix) PHP/4.0.4p11

Last-Modified: Thu, 2 Aug. 2001 15:27:24 GMT

Content-Length: 260

Content-Type: binary/x-user-request

POST/setTemp HTTP/1.1

Authorization: Basic bmV0Ym90ejpwYXNzd29yZA=

Host: bc10

User-Agent: USER AGENT/1.2

Accept: *.*

Accept-Encoding: gzip

Accept-Language: en

VARIABLE=VALUE

The Appliance may process the output of its Post as if the command hadbeen sent to it through its web server, modifying the settings andgenerating a reply. The Appliance then issues another configurationrequest to the present invention, delivering the output:

POST/centra/configquery HTTP/1.1

Host: 192.168.1.218:81

User-Agent: AGENT/1.1.3

Accept: */*

Accept-Encoding: gzip

Accept-Language: en

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Mon, 6 Aug. 2001 17:15:25 GMT

Server: SERVER/1.1.3

Last-Modified: Mon, 6 Aug. 2001 17:15:25 GMT

Content-Length: 200

Content-Type: text/plain

VARIABLE 1: VALUE 1

VARIABLE 2: VALUE 2

The server may process the output, and determines if another requestneeds to be issued. If so, it replies to the Post with the next request(repeating steps 2-4 until all requests are done). If not, it simplyreplies with no output:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Mon, 6 Aug. 2001 17:15:27 GMT

Server: Apache/1.3.17 (Unix) PHP/4.0.4p11

Last-Modified: Thu, 2 Aug. 2001 15:27:26 GMT

The Appliance sees that there are no further requests, and waiting untilthe next configured configuration update polling time before issuinganother configuration request HTTP Post.

This mechanism may allow the full span of features accessible throughthe Appliance's web server (including those provided via add-ons) to beaccessed without requiring custom coding or modification, since any HTTPGET or POST request can be wrappered as shown above.

In addition, this approach may allow appliances that have lost theirconfiguration to be configured simply by pointing them at the system.This Feature may use a set of HTTP GETs through this mechanism in orderto validate an Appliance's configuration before applying any neededchanges.

Network appliance data may be organized and associated by various means.The data may be organized by location, responsible party, organization,network appliance type, version, alarm state, and status among others.For example, the network appliances may be organized into groups. Groupsmay be dynamic or static lists of appliances that represent a set ofappliances. Each logical group may be implemented through SQL query(used to produce a list of appliances) or a specific list of appliances,and a list of users that have access to the group for security, amongothers. When an SQL query is defined for a group, appliances areautomatically assigned to the group (as well as removed from the group)based on their attributes matching the conditions dictated by the SQLquery. For example, a group may be defined by an SQL query whichlogically selected “all appliances where the application version=1.2”.Appliances upgraded from application version 1.1 to 1.2 wouldautomatically be added to the group, while appliances upgraded fromversion 1.2 to 1.3 would automatically be removed.

Groups may be used to display the hierarchy of a business organization,the responsible IT person for said group, or to represent a physicallocation in a building. Other exemplary implementations may allowmatching on a wide variety of attributes, including current sensorreadings, alert states, and custom, user-defined appliance attributes.

Further the associations may be manipulated and changed. For example,the client machine may retrieve data associate with network applianceand display them in a tree. FIG. 12 is a schematic of an exemplary tree.The tree may associate appliances in various groups and give access toindividual appliances on various levels of the tree structure. Moreover,a user may manipulate groups, appliances associated with the groups,user access and permissions associated with the network appliance andgroups, and the tree visual characteristics, among others.

The groups may also be represented in a table. The table may displayvarious data associated with the network appliances. Further the tablemay be updated as data changes on the server. This update may forexample, occur following a ping and/or query to the server. Alternately,the update may be provided by the server.

FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C are block diagrams depicting an exemplary tableassociated with an exemplary group. In this exemplary embodiment andappliance may have an on/off status. This status may change as seen withnetwork appliance #1. Further the other visual indications may be usedto indicate status, such as, for example, shading. In addition, visualand/or acoustic indicators may be used to indicate alarms or valuationsrelative to thresholds. For example network appliance 2 may have analarm associated with value #1 and shade that cell. The cells may becolorized to indicate alarm state. A user may also manipulate thevalues, parameters, and other characteristics displayed in a table. Forexample, a user may display the model or version. Further, the order ofthe network appliances may be varied in association with an alarm, adata value, or grouping.

A table may also be used to display historical data of events, alertsand alarms, among others. The data may include a data, time, availableimages, and other data.

Data associated with network appliances may also be displayed as a graphas seen in FIG. 14. The graph may display the same type of data forseveral network appliances, various data from various sensors for thesame appliance, or various combinations, among others. The graph may becomposed of historical data or may be updated as new data is available.Further, the graph may replay data, changing the graph to represent anext value in a series of values according to an accelerated schedule.

To compact the amount of data the server stores overall, a schema may beimplemented to only store the changes in the environment. For example,if the system collected data from an Appliance every 10 minutes, and thetemperature of the room was constant for over an hour creating a datapoint for each collection interval may increase the size of the storeddata. Instead, only the changes may be recorded so the environment canbe played-back to the user in as efficient a manner as possible. Sincemost environmental sensors tend to change value slowly and infrequently,this enables a significant reduction in the amount of data stored in thedatabase of the present invention without any loss of resolution andaccuracy: storing 100 rows, 1 per minute, indicating the sametemperature reported by the same sensor is no more accurate or detailed(but consumes significantly more data) than one row reporting that thesensor was a given temperature for the 100 minutes between two points intime. This compaction of the recorded sensor data enables significantlymore data to be recorded for more appliances for a longer time(estimates are 20-100 times as much as a conventional 1 sample per rowschema). Each row may include both a starting timestamp and an endingtimestamp, allowing easy creation of SQL queries requesting sensorreadings at any given time (i.e. SELECT * WHERE ((START_TIME<=T) AND(END_TMIE>=T));).

The graphs may be depicted based on a time range and a set of particularsensor readings. Allowing more than one appliance to be graphed at atime allows users to physically view the patters of environmentalchanges as well as compare one area of a location against another. Thegraphs themselves may be organized by day, week, month, or for theentire time range provided. These graphs may then be saved as in agraphic format, such as, a JPEG, GIF, or BMP file, among others, foremail and/or reports, or can be exported as comma-delimited text toanother utility of the users choosing.

The graphs may also include markers indicating any alerts associatedwith the displayed sensor on the selected appliances. These markers mayappear on the line graph at the point in time where the alarm wasreported or on an axis, among others. Different markers may be used foralarms reporting errors versus alarms reporting the return-to-normal ofa previously out-of-bounds sensor reading For example, a solid bulletmay be used for errors, and an open bullet for return-to-normal alarms.This feature allows a concise and comprehensive view of the history of agiven sensor on a set of appliances, both including the recorded dataand highlighting the important events associated with that history.

Since some environment changes can be radically different than others,the graph view may implement zooming in on a particular set of datapoints. This provides the user with a more detailed graph of a smallertime range. Just like the other graphs, a zoomed-in graph can then besaved to a graphic format for email or exported as a comma delimitedfile for use in another application.

When the graph zoom is activated, the time and sensor units scales maybe appropriately recomputed based on the selected range. In addition,the legend associated with the graph may be reduced to just includethose appliances that have sensor data contained within the zoom window,allowing the zoom view to be effectively used to pull detailedinformation out of a graph containing more lines of data than couldtypically viewed effectively.

In addition, data may be displayed and/or manipulated in other formats.For example, FIG. 15 shows a display for image data. The display area230 may show an image. The image may be associated with an event suchas, for example, a door sensor, an alarm, or a specified time, amongothers. The image 136 may be displayed with event data 232 and/orappliance data 234. However, more than one image may be displayed. Aseries of images may be displayed from a single appliance. Alternatelyan array of images from several network appliances.

The event may be a recent event or a stored historical event. Further,the images and data may be stored in a manner which associates the imagewith the event and/or the data.

As such, a remote monitoring system is described. In view of the abovedetailed description of the present invention and associated drawings,other modifications and variations will now become apparent to thoseskilled in the art. It should also be apparent that such othermodifications and variations may be effected without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the claimsthat follow.

1. A method for mass configuration of a plurality of network appliances,the method comprising: displaying, to a user, configuration dataassociated with each of the plurality of network appliances, theconfiguration data including at least one parameter applicable to everynetwork appliance of the plurality of network appliances; receiving anupdate for the configuration data from the user, the update specifying anew value for the at least one parameter; receiving a plurality ofhypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) communications from the plurality ofnetwork appliances, each of the plurality of HTTP communicationsrespectively corresponding to a network appliance of the plurality ofnetwork appliances; and transmitting, respectively in response toreceiving each of the plurality of HTTP communications, updateinformation specifying the new value of the at least one parameter to acorresponding network appliance of the plurality of network appliancesusing at least one of a ping, HTTP GET and HTTP POST.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein displaying, to the user, the configurationdata includes grouping the configuration data according to attributes ofeach of the plurality of network appliances with which the configurationdata is associated.
 3. The method according to claim 1, whereindisplaying, to the user, the configuration data includes displaying theconfiguration data in a browser executing on a client machine.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein displaying, to the user, theconfiguration data includes displaying the configuration data in a treeview.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein displaying, to theuser, the configuration data includes displaying the configuration datain a plurality of cells in a table.
 6. The method according to claim 5,wherein receiving the update of the configuration data includesreceiving data entered by a user into the plurality of cells.
 7. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein displaying, to the user, theconfiguration data includes displaying a current value for theconfiguration data.
 8. The method according to claim 7, whereindisplaying, to the user, the configuration data includes indicating acomparison of the current value to a second value.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 8, wherein indicating the comparison includescomparing the current value to a threshold value.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 8, wherein indicating the comparison includescolorizing the current value.
 11. The method according to claim 1,wherein receiving the update for the configuration data includesreceiving the update at a client machine.
 12. The method according toclaim 1, wherein receiving the update for the configuration data includereceiving the update at a server.
 13. The method according to claim 1,wherein transmitting the update information includes transmitting updateinformation at a time determined by a function of server activity. 14.The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving theupdate information by at least one of the plurality of networkappliances; and manipulating settings stored on the at least one of theplurality of network appliances based at least in part on the updateinformation.
 15. The method according to claim 1, wherein transmittingthe update information includes wrapping at least one of a HTTP GET andHTTP POST in the update information.
 16. The method according to claim1, wherein transmitting the update information includes transmittingupdate information through a firewall.
 17. The method according to claim1, further comprising transmitting the plurality of HTTP communicationsat a time determined by a function of network appliance activity.
 18. Asystem for mass configuration of a plurality of network appliances, thesystem comprising: an output; an input; a network interface; and acontroller coupled to the output, the input and the network interfaceand configured to: display, to a user, configuration data associatedwith each of the plurality of network appliances via the output, theconfiguration data including at least one parameter applicable to everynetwork appliance of the plurality of network appliances; receive anupdate for the configuration data from the user via the input, theupdate specifying a new value for the at least one parameter; receive aplurality of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) communications from theplurality of network appliances via the network interface, each of theplurality of HTTP communications respectively corresponding to a networkappliance of the plurality of network appliances; and transmit,respectively in response to receiving each of the plurality of HTTPcommunications, update information specifying the new value of the atleast one parameter to a corresponding network appliance of theplurality of network appliances via the network interface using at leastone of a ping, HTTP GET and HTTP POST.
 19. The system according to claim18, wherein the controller, in displaying the configuration data, isfurther configured to group the configuration data according toattributes of each of the plurality of network appliances with which theconfiguration data is associated.
 20. A non-transitory computer readablemedium having stored thereon sequences of instruction for performingmass configuration of a plurality of network appliances, includinginstructions that will cause at least one processor to: display, to auser, configuration data associated with each of the plurality ofnetwork appliances, the configuration data including at least oneparameter applicable to every network appliance of the plurality ofnetwork appliances; receive an update for the configuration data fromthe user, the update specifying a new value for the at least oneparameter; receive a plurality of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)communications from the plurality of network appliances, each of theplurality of HTTP communications respectively corresponding to a networkappliance of the plurality of network appliances; and transmit,respectively in response to receiving each of the plurality of HTTPcommunications, update information specifying the new value of the atleast one parameter to a corresponding network appliance of theplurality of network appliances using at least one of a ping, HTTP GETand HTTP POST.